PSY FPX 6025 Assessment 4

Introduction

Youths of today are more media-exposed, multitasking in the process—simultaneously using various media platforms—increasingly common (Cain et al., 2016). TV viewing while text messaging is an example. Media availability at any time and place has encouraged such behavior, impacting cognitive processes (Cain et al., 2016). As technology evolves to provide media more accessibly and at a lower cost, multitasking is now a ubiquitous phenomenon (Jiotsa et al., 2021). However, research indicates that media multitasking is linked to lower academic performance, impaired cognitive functioning, and higher impulsivity (Cardoso-Leite et al., 2021).

This report aims to explain the effect of multimedia use among teenagers while learning on their performance. It discusses the effect of multitasking on cognitive processes, attention, and comprehension. It also discusses evidence-based intervention strategies for parents to reverse these effects among their teenagers.

Analysis of How Media Multitasking Affects Adolescents’ Cognitive, Social, Emotional, and Physical Development

Media multitasking can interrupt focus and impact various aspects of development, including cognitive, social, emotional, and physical (Konrad et al., 2013). Multitasking is increasingly prevalent among youth since it is incorporated into the developmental process (Popławska et al., 2021). Distraction reading, common in today’s fast society, is mentally taxing (Xie, 2019). Longitudinal studies correlate childhood heavy exposure to media with worsening school performance and health effects (Mundy et al., 2020; Lüscher & Radtke, 2022). Further, broken reading and social media are also known to influence cognition and brain functioning (Feng et al., 2021).

Analysis of the Key Theories and Data

Media multitasking contradicts cognitive processing, as maintained by the successful multitasking framework (Eanes, 2023). The social-ecological model by Urie Bronfenbrenner describes the impact of such effects, among others (Eanes, 2023). Environmental and biological factors, among others, influence early development (Likhar et al., 2022). Culture influences consumption patterns in the media, while mass media dictates societal behaviors and values (Liao, 2023).

Behavioral Modification

Behavioral reduction of media multitasking is based on awareness, limitation, and mindfulness exercises (Moisala et al., 2016). These behaviors aim to enhance metacognition, limit media access, and promote focused attention and task fulfillment (Moritz et al., 2019).

Conclusion

Adolescent use of media during study hours has a strong influence on their cognitive functions and academic performance. Media multitasking requires sophisticated interventions at several levels of individual, family, and education. Continued research is essential to find its long-term effects and design effective interventions.

PSY FPX 6025 Assessment 4: Responding to Important Adolescent Development Issues: Media Multitasking 

Cardoso-Leite, P., Buchard, A., Tissieres, I., Mussack, D., & Bavelier, D. (2021). Media use, attention, mental health, and academic performance among 8- to 12-year-old children. PLOS ONE, 16(11), e0259163. e0259163.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259163

Feng, J., Hu, B., Sun, J., Zhang, J., Wen, W., & Cui, G. (2021). Identifying fragmented reading and evaluating its influence on cognition based on a single-trial electroencephalogram. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 15.  https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2021.753735

Jiotsa, B., Naccache, B., Duval, M., Rocher, B., & Grall‐Bronnec, M. (2021). The study examines the association between the frequency of comparing one’s own physical appearance to that of people followed on social media and body dissatisfaction, as well as the drive for thinness. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(6), 2880.  https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18062880

Moisala, M., Salmela, V., Hietajärvi, L., Salo, E., Carlson, S., Salonen, O., Lonka, K., Hakkarainen, K., Salmela‐Aro, K., & Alho, K. (2016). Media multitasking is associated with distractibility and increased prefrontal activity in adolescents and young adults. NeuroImage, 134, 113–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.04.011

PSY FPX 6025 Assessment 4: Responding to Important Adolescent Development Issues: Media Multitasking 

Mundy, L., Canterford, L., Hoq, M., Olds, T., Moreno‐Betancur, M., Sawyer, S. Μ., Kosola, S., & Patton, G. C. (2020). Electronic media use and academic performance in late childhood: A longitudinal study. PLOS ONE, 15(9), e0237908. e0237908.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237908

Sharma, S., & Behl, R. (2022). Analyzing the Impact of Social Media on Students’ Academic Performance: A Comparative Study of Extraversion and Introversion Personality. Psychological Studies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-022-00675-6

Winstone, L., Mars, B., Haworth, C. M. A., & Kidger, J. (2021). Social media use and social connectedness among adolescents in the United Kingdom: a qualitative exploration of displacement and stimulation. BMC Public Health, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11802-9

Xie, W. (2019). Xie, W. (2019) conducted an analysis of fragmented reading and its social impact on college students in the era of new media. Journal of Contemporary Educational Research. https://doi.org/10.26689/jcer.v3i3.693

Part II: Presentation

Introduction

Hello, my name is Jared Davis, an undergraduate student of Capella University pursuing a master’s degree in psychology in child and adolescent development. The presentation aims at explaining the interferential effect of media multitasking on attention and its applicability to the health, growth, development, and well-being of children.

Understanding Multimedia Tasking

Each generation has remained under relentless exposure to social and technological change as a result of advancing technologies. Technological progress has further solidified technology’s ubiquity, bathing us in a multidevice deluge annually. Social networking sites have taken over the online universe, transforming communication, picture sharing, and much else. Individuals seamlessly integrate digital devices into the most mundane activities, such as driving, housekeeping, exercising, reading, doing homework, and even dining. Online dating has also begun to overtake classic dating paradigms as well. Developed to make and hasten work, technology has inadvertently promoted media multitasking, which has raised concern from parents and educators. Tragically, the trend has been followed by undesirable effects like diminished intellectual abilities and higher rates of despair, isolation, and indolence. Constant texting, photo swapping, web browsing, and driving amid a deluge of alerts spur adolescents’ susceptibility to media multitasking. Isolation allows for the maintenance of cognitive honesty. Multitasking two or more tasks simultaneously interferes with media digestion and comprehension.

How to Overcome Media Multitasking

The remedy for media multitasking calls for individual as well as institutional measures. Schools can reduce psychological factors responsible for multimedia addiction by introducing meditation classes. Three broad intervention strategies—awareness, restriction, and attentiveness—are pivotal.

Awareness: This intervention aims to discourage distractions and facilitate behavioral modification. For instance, the use of popup reminders to redirect students back to studying when deviating into media multitasking can induce task compliance.

Limitation: Facilitating single-tasking attention is the crux of this intervention. Teachers can prompt students to put away their phones and focus on the task at hand.

Mindfulness: This intervention helps build psychological resilience against media multitasking by strengthening attention and inducing reflection over the consequences of making a decision regarding the utilization of the media. Incorporating mindfulness exercises and activities into study materials can be instrumental in developing the resistance capacity of learners against the temptation of getting sucked into media multitasking.